Video

Lectures

"The Evolution of a Key Innovation in an Experimental Population of E. coli: A Tale of Opportunity, Contingency, and Co-option"

• My doctoral defense. This talk gives an overview of my doctoral work, and the state of the research into the evolution of Cit+ in the LTEE up to March, 2011

"Making the New from the Old: How Evolution Innovates"

• ​The talk I was asked to give in 2014 at the National Association of Biology Teachers Professional Development Conference to teach biology teachers about how evolution innovates through blind modification and tinkering with materials at hand. Science teachers played a key role in how I got to where I am, so this talk was a great honor to give.

"Richard E. Lenski: A Man, A Career, and His Place in Science"

• ​This is the keynote address I gave at the August 13, 2016 symposium in honor of Richard Lenski's 60th birthday, in which I covered the history of experimental evolution and Rich's life. Secret origins may have been discussed, and squirrels might have made an appearance. You'll have to watch to find out. (This was a ton of fun to research, prep, and give!)

Fun Stuff

"Zach Builds a Tower"

• What building a plate tower looks like in time lapse. This was the 2007 tower of 13,704 plates; the largest I've yet built. 

"Zach Disassembles his Tower"

• Sadly, Petri plate towers are necessarily ephemeral things. This is what disassembly looks like in time lapse.